The Arc of US Intervention in Venezuela: From Coups to Gunboats
By Israa Akil – Sep 18, 2025
For more than two decades, Venezuela has lived under the shadow of US regime-change attempts. The methods have shifted from covert support for coups to suffocating sanctions, judicial indictments, asset seizures, and now a good old-fashioned Caribbean piracy. However, the objective has remained constant: to topple the Bolivarian government and install a leadership more pliant to Washington’s interests.
Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela through the ballot box, winning the presidency in 1998 and consolidating his rule through successive electoral victories. His leadership, however, faced a rare setback in 2007, when he lost a constitutional referendum that would have expanded his powers indefinitely. Chavez remained a dominant figure until his death from cancer in March 2013. In the aftermath, his chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, narrowly won the presidency in elections held shortly after.
Throughout 2021 to 2023, US policy oscillated between tactical pauses and new restrictions, but the underlying framework of economic suffocation stayed in place
In April 2002, President Hugo Chavez was briefly overthrown in a coup. Declassified US intelligence revealed that Washington was aware of opposition plans weeks in advance, noting that dissident military officers were stepping up efforts to organize a coup against Chavez. The United States looked the other way when an assault on a democratically elected leader took place. Once Chavez returned to power within days.
Following this first attempt, Washington did not relent. Between 2002 and 2004, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives and the National Endowment for Democracy ramped up their programs in Venezuela, funneling millions of dollars through contractors like Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) to opposition NGOs. One recipient, Sumate, played a central role in organizing the recall referendum against Chavez. This act foreshadows that the United States was financing internal political warfare under the guise of democracy promotion.
When these strategies failed to unseat Chavez, Washington escalated. In 2014, after a wave of violent street protests left dozens dead, the Obama administration moved from funding opposition groups to outright coercion. By March 2015, the White House issued Executive Order 13692, declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, a stunning designation for a country with no capacity to endanger the United States. This order created the legal foundation for a broad sanctions regime.
Next came the financial stranglehold. In August 2017, Washington prohibited Venezuela from issuing new debt in US markets, effectively cutting off the state and its oil company PDVSA from international finance. And when Nicolas Maduro won re-election in 2018 in a vote the US refused to recognize, sanctions deepened further, worsening an already severe economic crisis.
After this, the Trump administration took an even bolder step. In January 2019, it recognized opposition figure Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “interim president,” moving to hand him control of Venezuelan assets abroad and granting him control over Venezuelan assets held in US-insured banks.
However, Guaido never gained actual control over these assets. The U.S. extended a license protecting Citgo Petroleum, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, from creditors until March 2025. Despite this, creditors continue to vie for claims on Citgo’s refining assets in the US, complicating the situation.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Maduro’s government faced legal challenges in reclaiming Venezuela’s gold reserves stored in the Bank of England. In July 2022, London’s High Court ruled against Maduro’s efforts to gain control of over $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves, citing the UK’s recognition of Guaido as interim president.
This series of actions underscores how the US and its allies effectively seized Venezuelan assets under the guise of supporting Guaidó, without ever transferring control to him.
In February 2019, a high-profile concert took place on the Colombian border, organized by British billionaire Richard Branson to “support” Venezuela and raise funds for humanitarian aid. While framed as a charitable effort, the event came amid Nicolas Maduro’s blockade of US-sponsored aid, which Washington was attempting to funnel into the country as part of its broader regime change strategy. The concert was less about delivering relief than signaling international backing for opposition leader Juan Guaido, turning humanitarian assistance into a highly visible tool of political pressure against Maduro.
Caracas repeatedly insisted that such sanctions were collective punishment aimed at breaking the will of the Venezuelan people
On April 30, 2019, an attempted uprising against Nicolas Maduro, promoted by the US and Venezuelan opposition, dramatically failed. Despite calls for a military revolt in support of Juan Guaido, only a handful of personnel joined, leaving the effort in disarray.
When Maduro still did not fall, Washington intensified pressure on Caracas once again. In March 2020, the US Department of Justice unsealed indictments against Maduro and senior officials, accusing them of running a “narco-terrorist” conspiracy. The State Department then placed a $15 million bounty on Maduro’s head. Just weeks later, “Operation Gideon”, a botched mercenary raid organized by a former US Green Beret working with Venezuelan exiles, ended in disaster. Washington denied direct involvement, but the climate of maximum pressure made such plots inevitable.
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Even after the failure of these gambits, sanctions remained the default weapon. Throughout 2021 to 2023, US policy oscillated between tactical pauses and new restrictions, but the underlying framework of economic suffocation stayed in place. Caracas repeatedly insisted that such sanctions were collective punishment aimed at breaking the will of the Venezuelan people.
In 2024, after another disputed election, Washington tightened the screws once more, sanctioning dozens of officials and rejecting the legitimacy of Maduro’s mandate. The regime-change agenda was intact, only the instruments shifted.
The reality today
In August, the State Department raised the bounty on Maduro to $50 million, the highest reward ever offered for a sitting head of state and double what was offered for Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Maduro was framed as the kingpin of a transnational drug empire. Almost simultaneously, the Pentagon surged naval assets into the Caribbean under the banner of “counter-narcotics.” On September 2, US forces struck a boat they claimed was smuggling narcotics from Venezuela, killing eleven people. Experts argued that it was an illegal attack on Caracas’ sovereignty; Washington claimed it was law enforcement.
Washington’s playbook has followed a relentless logic: if funding the opposition fails, impose sanctions; if sanctions fail, seize assets; if that fails, fabricate criminal charges; and if even that fails, send warships. At every stage, Venezuela’s sovereignty has been trampled and its people treated as collateral damage in a geopolitical contest.
